Shaw Festival Film Series

Once the actors and actresses of the Shaw give their final performance for the live theatre season, the stage doesn’t really go dark; it just showcases a different artistic medium: film. The annual and much anticipated Shaw Festival Film Series gets underway once again this December, showcasing not only several feature films, but also five different documentaries. This exciting event is done in partnership with The Film Circuit, which is a branch of the Toronto International Film Festival. The Shaw Film Series first began in 2005, and has been a growing success ever since.

Making this event even more unique and intriguing is a partnership with Gathering Niagara, an organization whose aim is to bring people together and make them happy. One way to do this? Organize a Lunchmarket, which provides movie buffs with gourmet food options before they attend a screening of a great new movie.

Food will be available both inside and outside the Festival Theatre and vendors will rotate every week. So far, film goers will be able to enjoy food from: The Dirty South, who offer gourmet BBQ; and Exclusively Schilling, offering quality baked goods. The Yellow Pear will offer a delicious array of locally inspired fare. Lovin’ From the Oven will be there with to- die-for comfort food such as lobster mac and cheese, as well as special film inspired foods. With all that delicious, gourmet food to choose from, patrons will be able to try a different dish before each film!

A Film Breakdown

These are just some of the films that will be screening at this years film series, a full listing is available at shawfest.com

Feature Films

January 3: Boyhood

This coming of age story was shot over the course of 12 years (the cast got together annually for a few weeks each year to film) and follows a young boy and his sister as they grow into adulthood. The movie stars Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke.

January 17: Love Is Strange

Ben and George, a couple played by John Lithgow and Alfred Molina get married after 39 years together. But when the Catholic School Board that George teaches for finds out, he is fired, which forces the couple to lose their apartment and move into separate places.

January 24: St. Vincent

This comedy stars Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy and Namoi Watts. McCarthy plays a single mom who hires Vincent, a drunken, gambling war veteran, to watch her 12-year-old son Oliver, while she is at work.

February 7: Nightcrawler

This crime thriller stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo and Bill Paxton. Gyllenhaal plays a man who makes his living by shooting footage of accidents and crimes in Los Angeles, which he then sells to news channels.

Documentaries

January 2: Tim’s Vermeer

This documentary follows Tim Jenison’s efforts to replicate the painting techniques of Johannes Vermeer to test his theory that Vermeer painted with the assistance of optical devices.

January 9: Finding Vivian Maier

This movie is about a mysterious nanny, who took over 100,000 photographs that were found hidden in storage lockers and found decades later. Her life is revealed through both her photos and interviews with people who knew her.

January 16: Fed Up

This movie focuses on the American food industry and how it may be more responsible for sickness then previously thought.

January 23: Particle Fever

This documentary tracks the first round of experiments at the Large Hadron Collidor in Switzerland.

January 30: Citizenfour

This film centres on Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The filmmakers decided to make this film after receiving encrypted emails from someone with information on the government’s court surveillance programs…the sender turned out to be Edward Snowden.

Feature films will be screened every Saturday from December 6 to February 21, and showtime is at 3pm. Documentaries are screened on Friday evenings at 6pm, starting on January 2 and running until January 30.

More information on which films are playing on which days is available at shawfest.com, and for more information on what food will be available during what film, check out gatheringniagara.com

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Megan’s passion for the written word is only rivalled by her passion for travel – and as a closet foodie – an insatiable appetite for new cuisine. As the editor of Rev Publishing’s tourist and local magazines, every publication reflects this keen sense of taste, adventure and culture.